Blog Archives - Toni Writing for The Master

Daily devotion

10/31/2019

Understanding Our Role
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (All scripture is from MSG)
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Scripture Quote: Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working. Or, to put it another way, you are God's house. (1 Corinthians 3:8-9)

Paul was a joint worker with Christ in seeking the salvation of people. He begged those he ministered to not to neglect or slight God's offer of pardon. There have always been those who have been told of the plan of salvation and about God's abundant mercy who still rejected God's plan of reconciliation. Then, as now, those people are lost to the joy, inner peace and eternal life available to them through Christ. We sometimes get caught up in fear of rejection, not accepting that it is the message that is rejected, not the messenger.

We are under the misguided impression that we can control how others receive our message of hope, but that is not our role. God's people have the privilege of offering Christ's message without being obligated to do anything more than explain it. Once a person knows the terms on which God is willing to be reconciled to them, that person makes his choice. It is Jesus that they accept or reject, not us. Rather than being embarrassed by rejection, we can choose to fervently pray for the foolish soul that choses to forfeit his own redemption - Use God's grace to continue with His message for the next person.

Today’s meditation: God’s Saints serve Him.

Memory Verse: Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:1)

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Daily devotion

10/30/2019

Unconditional Love
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Romans 12:17-21
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Scripture Quote: But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. Matthew 5:44 (CEV)

It's almost an automatic response for us to avenge ourselves and to push back those who exert force on us. It seems that, left to our corrupt character, we are naturally hostile and violent people. There is nothing nobler than to imitate Christ in doing good to those who have hurt us in some way. We can see that all the beauty in nature that God created and continues to sustain, is given to both good and bad people to enjoy. Also, God loved us while we were lost sinners and He still made us His children. Since we are partakers of His Divine nature through Christ, we do have the ability to bless those who treat us badly and to forgive, as God has forgiven us.

Okay, so we know that God wants us to always be forgiving, but it isn't a simple matter because it is contrary to self-love - Our narcissistic tendencies strain hard against such selflessness. The only way we can ever hope to forgive everyone is to stay connected to the mind of Christ. Nothing but His great love, shared with us through the Holy Spirit, can enable us to practice forgiving grace. Christ’s anointing is key to loving deeply and forgiving freely.

Today’s meditation: Love others, even if they are unkind to you.

Memory Verse: Don't be hateful to people, just because they are hateful to you. Rather, be good to each other and to everyone else.
1 Thessalonians 5:15 (CEV)

Daily devotion

10/29/2019

Turn to Jesus
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Psalms 36:1-7 (All Scripture quoted is CEV)
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Scripture Quote: Turn to the LORD! He can still be found. Call out to God! He is near. Give up your crooked ways and your evil thoughts. Return to the LORD our God. He will be merciful and forgive your sins. (Psalms 55:6-7)

Even those who continually pursue mischief and follow the wrong path, who refuse to turn from their sinfulness, can be restored by God's infinite mercy. Rather than cutting off those who are lost, His long suffering is intended to lead them to repentance. Because God is so faithful, He fulfills His promises and covenants made by His mercy. All those who turn to God find forgiveness and grace. He delivers all the mercies and blessings He has promised.

Everyone who honors God's name, can trust Him because He is faithful to all who put their faith in Him. From heaven the Lord looks down to see if anyone is wise enough to search for Him. No one becomes Christ's follower without desiring it and seeking it with their whole heart - A Believer must earnestly seek Him. The invitation to believe in Christ's salvation is for everyone. His forgiveness is for all sinners, but we must first accept Christ's sacrifice and His Lordship. The knowledge of God is of inestimable value. His love is now given freely and completely. However, the time will eventually come when it will be impossible to obtain His favor.

Today’s meditation: Seek the Lord while He can still be found.

Memory Verse: The LORD is good! His love and faithfulness will last forever. (Psalms 100:5)

Daily devotion

10/28/2019

Take Heed
By, Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 3:10-18
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Scripture Quote: "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." 2 Peter 3:5-7 (NIV)

The ancient Bible’s sense of urgency about sinfulness was the same urgency we feel today. We suffer from war, disinterest in community, narcissism and immorality. God's Word helps us understand the pressing failures of a previous generation that so closely resembles our own.

The Gospel of Jesus is pure and holy and requires a holy heart and holy life. Many people wish to follow their own desires and want nothing to do with the restraints of the Gospel, so they insist that the Bible is simply untrue. Maybe they are trying to convince themselves that it’s a forgery, which then gives them free reign to ignore God's truth. They shut their eyes against the light and refuse all evidence of eventual consequence for a stiff necked people who have ignored God's warnings. God destroyed all but Noah's family once, whether nonbelievers get that or not. Our God is mighty to save, but also mighty to destroy - Make sure you are on the right side.

Today’s meditation: Believe all of God’s Word.

Memory Verse: “Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Psalms 86:11 (NIV)

Daily devotion

10/24/2019

Turn from Foolishness
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Psalms 49:7-14
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Scripture Quote: Wisdom shouts in the streets wherever crowds gather. She shouts in the marketplaces and near the city gates as she says to the people, "How much longer will you enjoy being stupid fools? Won't you ever stop sneering and laughing at knowledge? Proverbs 1:20-22 CEV

Christians can sometimes feel aimless and uncommitted, making many mistakes, or be frozen, afraid to make any mistakes - Either way, we can be unsure of ourselves. Maybe we have been followers of the crowd, timidly accepting the prevailing opinion. Conversely, when we are fixed in our opinions and want nothing new in our lives to change us, we are foolish and unteachable. We might hold a certain belief that has become comfortable and we'd rather no one challenges it. At times we may have all been there - Able to relate to human foolishness.

There comes a time in life when we have to evaluate our beliefs. Christian faith demands that we believe every word that God has inspired. Maturity does come with a cost. We do have to be willing to confess our weak thinking and ask God to renew us with His Word. Of course that is supposing that we read His Word and know where we need to make changes and ask for help. We can take a serious look at each thing in our life that hinders our spiritual growth. One at a time, we can unload our foolish beliefs at Jesus’ feet. He will help us become Believers who increase in wisdom as we grow closer to His heart.

Today’s meditation: Protect your spiritual life from growing stagnant.

Memory Verse: Wisdom makes life pleasant and leads us safely along. Proverbs 3:17 CEV

Daily devotion

10/23/2019

Trust the Word
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading:
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”(John 1:14)
“These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.” (John 20:31)

Believers can trust God’s Word. A scroll dating more than 1,000 years older than the versions among the Dead Sea Scrolls, containing the entire book of Isaiah, was found to be completely accurate except for a few letters. The translations handed down by Hebrew scholars, which prophesied the coming of Jesus, were incredibly accurate. The different writers of the books of the Bible vary in style, but they all convey what God wanted us to know. Our Bible is our trustworthy guide.

Knowledge of the Word is not enough. We must apply what we read to our daily lives. We can choose to spend time each day growing closer to God’s heart by discovering the inspired truths in His Word. When we are single-minded in our pursuit of God, we will find clear direction for our lives. Ponder every morsel of wisdom from God and value it more highly than all the riches of this world. We can bank the promises in the Bible into the vault of our hearts and live a truly rich life that abounds with His blessings. Christ did come to humanity in the form of a perfect man. He did die for our sins and He did rise again to everlasting life. This is truth that we can know deep down in our spirits.

Daily devotion

10/22/2019

Trust God With Your Pain
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 2:14-18 (Scripture quoted is from MSG)
Click here to read the scriptute
Scripture Quote: While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though he was God's Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. (Hebrew 5:7)

Wouldn't you think that God's son should have lived a comfortable life on earth and then died a peaceful death? He would still have walked the earth with man, died for us, and been resurrected. But Jesus came to earth to do more than just die for our sins. He came to live out a human existence so that He could relate to our temptations and our suffering. If He hadn't also suffered, could he understand our pain?

In every way, besides sinfulness, Jesus experienced human life. He endured more hardships in life than most people do and experienced torturous suffering in death. Jesus does understand when we call out to Him in our pain. He knows the tricks Satan uses to entrap us. Man may never fully grasp the pain and humiliation Jesus went through, but He is able to relate to our failures and suffering. There is nothing we can't bring to Him in prayer and no need greater than His capacity to understand and empathize - Jesus loves us that much. He stands ready to lead us into His glorious light!

Today’s meditation: We can trust God to understand our pain.

Memory Verse: We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

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Daily devotion

10/21/2019

Treasured Possessions
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:7-14
Click here to read the scripture
Scripture Quote: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9 NIV)

God's Word teaches that out of the whole earth, humanity is God's treasured possession. The intricate design of the human body is certainly amazing. Our brains are so incredibly complicated that each one is a unique masterpiece that has as yet to be fully utilized. The creativity involved in designing the billions of variations of the human face is absolutely staggering. It's easy to understand that God would clearly claim all these attributes about humanity as His prized treasure. However, the thoughts, behavior and selfish desires generated from within His great masterpieces definitely disappoint.

Still, Christians are acknowledged by our Creator as His treasure and His, "peculiar,” (purchased) people. Since God is the originator of everything good and beautiful in our world, it does follow that He would have splendid provision to fix even our damaged, fallen natures. God has given Jesus to the world. Jesus rescues us from everything evil within us and makes our hearts pure before the Father. We truly are God’s treasured possessions.

Today’s meditation: We could never love God as much as He loves us!

Memory Verse: On the day when I act," says the LORD Almighty, "they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. (Malachi 3 17 NIV)

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Daily devotion

10/18/2019

Transparency
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Psalms 139:1-14
Click here to read the scripture
Scripture Quote: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being. (Psalms 139:16 BBE)

God understands our every thought and desire. Omnipresence is defined as, presence in every place at the same time; unbounded or universal presence - Omnipresence is an attribute unique to God. How He is always with us and keeps watch over each person is a total mystery to the finite mind of man. The Word tells us that God even knows our thoughts before they are formed in our minds. How humbling it is to realize that there is no secret we can hide from our Heavenly Father. That ugly, selfish part of us that we would hide even from ourselves, if we could, is laid bare before Him.

Despite our worst thought or deed, God loves us intimately and completely. It's startling to actually try to grasp the concept that God's knowledge of us includes absolutely everything from beginning to end - That concept of total transparency is too huge for us to comprehend, but as we understand more incrementally, we can't help but love Him more fully and remain in awe of His Almighty Mercy and Grace. Believers should never doubt the unfathomable depth of love the Father has for each of His Own.

Today’s meditation: We are the complicated creation of God’s mind, power and love.

Memory Verse: You have seen my wanderings; put the drops from my eyes into your bottle; are they not in your record? (Psalms 56:8 BBE)

Daily devotion

10/17/2019

Transformation
Toni Smothers

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:25-31
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Scripture Quote: and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, (Ephesians 3:19-20 NIV)

We can't compare any person or power on earth to the unfathomable might of God. We know that he has placed every star in its place, every grain of sand in the sea and every child in their mother's womb. He is master of everything and there is not one problem He can't solve. So, we pray to God about our difficulties. We ask for His healing intervention for our loved ones and friends who are ill. We look to His divine nature to transform circumstances and help us cope with life as we are experiencing it.

We can also ask that God change us. While He does sometimes soften our circumstances, He almost always wants us to be transformed by them, so that we grow and mature. Any time we have to face a situation that is confusing or frightening, God can change us to reflect the image of His son more clearly, rather than take the difficulty away. We can chose to trust Him completely and face our limitations with expectancy - His power within us draws us closer and also increases our capability. As we trust and obey, God will make us more like Christ.

Today’s meditation: God wants His children to become more like Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:16-17New International Version (NIV) 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work

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Bio: Toni Smothers has written articles for “Total Health”, “Let’s Live”, “People In Action” and “The North American Mentor” magazines. She is a member of the Faithwriters.com writing community and was previously the editor for the teen section of their on-line magazine. She has written many programs, sermons, and skits and has edited several websites. Additionally, she has answered hundreds of questions for GotQuestions.org, a biblical resource site. Here is just one of their many testimonials: "Thank you for this insightful website! I was able to look up many questions I have asked over the years since becoming saved. The site is easy to navigate and gave me so much biblical background for answers that I feel my armor has been strengthened. You and your staff be encouraged to continue to speak the truth for God's glory." When Toni is not writing, she can usually be found cuddling with her 10 pound, furry, Morky muse, 'Sweet Pea.' Toni Smothers studied homeopathy extensively and became a proficient layman. She wrote about homeopathy for “Total Health” and “Let’s Live” magazines. Smothers describes her experience befriending a refugee family from Laos in her article published in the travel magazine, “People in Action.” Additionally, “American Mentor” magazine has published some of her poetry. Smothers drew upon her fun experiences as a youth pastor to provide the needed insight to function as the editor of the teen section of “Faithwriters” magazine and she is a member of the Faithwriters.com writer’s community.

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